Football

Off the Practice Field...Head Coach Spike Dykes

"Saturday night was a great night in this stadium. The stage
was set. Everything was there that you could ever ask for. We
had a great football game, we just didn't win the game.

"Texas really did do a good job with their offense. You've got
to give Texas credit. They've got good players and they were
picked first in this conference for a reason. What happened was
that they had the ball four times in the second half and the
least amount of plays in a possessions was eight and the most
was 14. That's 40 plus plays that they ran in the second half.
When that happens you don't get many opportunities. They
really did have a good plan and they executed it well and they
made some big plays on us.

"The sad part is that's not the way we've been playing. Our
defense has allowed so few big plays that we might've been where
we thought it wouldn't happen.

"Down 28-3 against Texas is difficult. Its real easy to go in
the tank when that happens. I thought Zebbie's pass to Donnie
was a great play. It was a tremendous pass, a tremendous catch,
but what it was it was a great shot in the arm. For the first
time in about 20 minutes we said 'well we might have a chance to
make this thing close.' After the second one we went into the
half thinking 'we might win this game.' Had we not made those
two plays it might have been a long game."

"I thought when we got down our offense did a good job of
adjusting the game plan. Their defense against the run was a
big concern of theirs yet we never got a chance to exploit that
because we were down so fast.

"We had a great improvement in the kicking game after we worried
all week about the kicking game. I thought Jaret Greaser's
field goal was the most unbelievable thing I ever saw because
when you watch it on the TV copy, that ball hit well up in the
middle of this grass bank. There's no telling how far that ball
would've gone. Its been a long time since we've had a guy play
as outstanding as Donnie Hart did at receiver. I don't know if
we've had a quarterback play as good as Zebbie played.

"All in all I thought it was a great football game. I'm sorry
we lost it. I'm proud of our guys for coming back. I'm proud
of the great crowd that we had. And I'm very, very disappointed
in the fact that we had a chance to really control our own
destiny.

"The big thing we have to do now is digest the loss. Try to get
our heads up and come back and play Southwest Louisiana. We're
not used to playing them. They haven't been a bowl team
recently and so on, but they've got good players. They're
making the move up to division 1 and they're doing well. They
really are competitive, they play hard. Two years ago we played
them and they had all the same skill people and that is pretty
unusual. Southwest Louisiana doesn't sound like much. Then you
start looking who they've played, how they've done, they were
the team that beat A&M early in the season.

"They've got a lot of fire power. They've got a good football
team. Their quarterback is a four year starter. Their
receivers are great players. They've got good backs. They're
predominantly a pro offense football team. They've figured out
a way to win a lot of close ball games. They've got a great
football coach. He's probably taken a job that is as hard as
any in the country because he is a low enrollment, new member in
division 1A football and he's played the best. They take on all
comers.

"It looks like Anthony Armour is gone for the year. He hurt his
other knee. He made three of the first four tackles in the ball
game and then he got injured. I've never seen a guy that wanted
to so bad that had as much hard luck as he's had. He's one of
those guys that gives you all he's got every play and those are
the kind that you really hate to see knocked out for the season.

"Win, lose, or draw this will always be one of the most
enjoyable teams I've ever been around.